European Adventures
by lemur10
Summary: a high school kid goes on a school Europe trip riddled with adventure.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – first day of school

"Oh my goodness, this is actually happening. After months of waiting, hours of agonizing packing, worrying, fits of joy, and more waiting, it is finally happening. I'm leaving for Europe. I AM LEAVING FOR EUROPE!"

Or at least that's what I _will_ say when I finally do leave for Europe. But as of right now there is still two whole weeks left and I think I'm going out of my mind.

This all started last year: grade 9 at Jacob Hespler Secondary School. I've gone to a Christian elementary school my whole life. It was horribly different from a public school. For one, the collective population of the school at the time was a little over 250. At the school I'd not really had a best friend, just a lot of acquaintances. Anyway I was convinced to be "cool" in high school. Sadly in hindsight I may have tried to hard. I took music, all the compulsories, and some other electives. I'd been playing piano since I was in grade one or two so I figured music would be a cinch. On Monday night I laid out the clothes I would be wearing the next day taking care to pick out the very best of my new clothes. Tuesday morning I made my mom drop me off a good half hour earlier than I needed to be there. As I entered through the front doors I was suddenly overcome with excitement followed very quickly by confusion and worry. Some genius decided to put the master list with of every kid's last name with a dotted line leading to the room number of your first class directly in front of the doors. I guess it was to help out new students like me figure it out without much hassle. They were mistaken. Kids were piled everywhere and being a grade nine and thus the scum of the earth, it took me a good ten minutes to get to see the list that was roughly five feet away. My first class was room number 232. My next instinct was to find some friends and see if they were in my homeroom. After another few minutes I found my small clan milling around the left side of the doors. I learned that apparently room 232 is music and I breathed a sigh of relief. Most unfortunately, none of my friends were in my class. I headed up to the room and waited outside.

Apparently not all grade ten and up think we suck. When I asked if this was the music room, a grade 12 with two or three large instrument cases politely said yes. The teacher came to open the door and he dropped off his instruments. Apparently you can take instruments for the summer for extra practice and the like. The class filed in and sat down and the teacher introduced herself. As per usual with first days, we filled out one of those sheets that "help teachers get to know you". They seem really stalkerish to me but whatever. Afterwards we got a piece of paper listing the rest of our classes for the day, what room number they were in, and who the teacher is. The rest of the day wasn't really all that exciting. It was filled with more panic and confusion when I couldn't find the next room, followed by relief when I inevitably did, and more frustration when I filled out not one, not two, but three more of the sheets. By the end of the day I knew very well my name (first and last), hobbies, place of work, parent's names, parent's contact numbers, address, home phone, cell number, my goals for the class and class expectations.

Being the incredibly sheltered kid I am I had never ridden a bus before. Since the school was about 8 minutes away by car I couldn't walk. My dad worked till around 4:30 and my mom around 7. Since school ends at 3:30 waiting for a ride was out of the question. Most conveniently, the school buses didn't go anywhere near my house. How excellent. I now had to ride the bus alone with nothing to go on but a few printed papers my dad had gotten the night before on the Cambridge, Ontario bus routes, and 2.25 for fare. I step outside and see two bus stops in front of the school. One was on this side of the street one on the other. But just to make it better several buses stopped at the one stop. I successfully locate the number 53 on both bus stops. Now what? I decide to stay at the one on this side of the street because more kids were waiting at it. Big mistake.

Ten minutes later I'm sitting on the 53 and realize it's going the opposite way that I need to go. I freak out for a good ten minutes but only in my head because I didn't need the whole bus thinking I was a wierdy on top of being lost. I hesitate to call a parent knowing they'd go all "I told you so!" on me, so I just wait. Thankfully a full half hour later the bus gets to a terminal where I get onto the right bus home. I get home and nonchalantly call my dad. "Hey, I'm home."

"That's good, how was it?"

"Oh, uhm, it was fine."

"…What does that mean?"

"I kind of got on the wrong bus."

He starts laughing. Thanks dad, incredibly encouraging.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – "Hey you go to Jacob right?"

The next day we are sitting in room 232 listening to announcements coming from the PA at the front of the room. The problem with making friends in high school is that everyone comes from a normal school of more than only 250 so life-long friendships have already been established. Strangely however Deanna and her friend Sarah start talking to me.

"Hey how's it going?"

"Oh… uhm… alright…you?"

"I'm Deanna and this is Sarah."

"I'm Tyler."

And other awkward first meeting vernacular like that. After announcements we were handed sheets asking us our desired instrument to learn this semester. I quickly looked around the room and scanned my brain for all the instruments I knew. "Clarinet?" I thought. "No. Flute? Naw. Hmmm." I then saw a picture of a saxophone. "Saxophones are pretty popular." So saxophone it was. Then it asked for a reason. I began swearing profusely in my head, which for me was uncommon because swearing was incredibly taboo at my old school. I thought I'd flex my new freedoms at a normal school. I scribbled down that "I like the sound". Deanna and Sarah both chose the clarinet because they had taken it in elementary school. My brain exploded. You could learn instruments in _elementary school_?!

The next day we came in for class and the teacher told us what instrument we would be playing. I got the sax. The problem with a class of rowdy grade nines and a teacher who was apparently new that year is that…well the statement answered itself. Some of the kids were off the wall. Not to mention I was one of only about three who knew how to read music. Needless to say, not much playing was done. We spent the next few classes learning how to put our instruments together by ourselves, how to clean the mouth pieces (you had to share with whoever else in another class also got your instrument number), how to sign them out for home practice, and most of all how to read music. I quickly became bored out of my mind with the constant onslaught of never ending music theory sheets. "Name the flats of the bass clef" they would say. "Grizzly Bears Deserve Fish Always" I would recite in my head. I would then write down G, B, D, F, and A and move on to another equally dull question.

That night was my first hip hop class. I'd decided since I suck at all other sports I would try dance since I'd kind of wanted to for a while now. It's like God decided to make this the most awkward week ever. I get to class late because my mom got home late so I had to walk in alone while the class was already in session. The head of the dance company was talking to my mom when she suddenly turns to me and says "you aren't shy are you?" I push out my chest a bit and reply, "no, not really."

"You can just walk in then if you'd like."

Oh crap. I walk to the door and gingerly turn the knob. I open the door and of course they're all facing the choreographer who happened to be right behind the door. All eyes glance towards me. "Uhm hi…"

"Are you Tyler Andrews?" he asked.

I said yes and went to sit in the circle on the floor. I noticed a girl with blonde hair who was laughing with about 3 other girls around her. She turned to me and said, "Hey you go to Jacob right?"

"Yeah" I replied.

"I've seen you in the halls before. I'm Beth."

"Jason." I smiled. That was the beginning of my first best friendship.


End file.
